Rebuild Nation Or Relive Past

January 9, 2002|By WILLIAM E. GIBSON Washington Bureau Chief

WASHINGTON — While mopping up the war in Afghanistan, the United States and its allies now turn to one of the most difficult phases of its mission: rebuilding a devastated, oppressed and starving nation.

Florida Sen. Bill Nelson and eight fellow senators, while touring central Asia this week, assured the new Afghan leaders the United States will not neglect their battle-scarred nation the way it did a decade ago after supplying military aid to help oust Soviet forces.

Nelson called for extensive humanitarian and economic aid for Afghanistan to fend off a potential revival of terrorism. Feeding people, educating them and providing a legitimate alternative to terrorist training is the best way to prevent Central Asia from turning into a staging area for attacks like the ones on Sept. 11, he and other senators said.

``If people are starving, they are ripe for being seduced by terrorists,'' Nelson, D-Fla., told reporters by phone on Tuesday. Many Afghan children have been denied schooling, he said, which gave an opening to Taliban leaders to train them as terrorists.

Rebuilding Afghanistan will be a daunting task in a nation hobbled by a lack of good roads, schools, hospitals and modern communications even before the devastating reign of the Taliban, the recent displacement of millions of people and nearly three months of U.S. bombing. Long divided by feuding warlords, Afghanistan remains locked in a bygone era, with no tradition of strong central government or democratic institutions.

The United States and its allies nevertheless are determined to bolster the interim government in the wake of the war and to create a more-modern, stable Afghanistan.

Major donor nations plan to meet in Tokyo Jan. 21 and 22 to sort out the funding. Total costs are expected to reach $9 billion to $10 billion, according to an initial assessment by the U.N. Development Programme, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

"We basically need billions of dollars to overcome the difficulties in all spheres of economic activity and the infrastructure," Hamid Karzai told reporters last month in Kabul after he was sworn in as Afghanistan's interim prime minister. "There is really no area in which Afghanistan does not require assistance."

Afghan leaders said they will take help from most anybody, including Israel.

The United States, though facing budget woes, almost certainly will contribute heavily toward the rebuilding effort. President Bush has pledged $320 million of humanitarian aid, much of it for food to prevent mass starvation.

Pakistan has pledged $100 million toward the relief and rebuilding effort. Other donors are awaiting the meeting in Tokyo before making commitments.

Once people are fed and emergency aid provided, the rebuilding process begins with securing the countryside, which is still overrun with bandits, and propping up the new government. Many of those who supported the Taliban have blended back into the populace -- a latent force that could rise again.

"Some careful planning has to go into how the regime recovers from the past 20 years of internal warfare. International aid will help the recovery in a big way," said Andrew Hess, professor of diplomacy and an expert on Central Asia at Tufts University. "Much of it involves teaching people how to engage in small-scale farming and rural business activity, repairing trucks, that kind of thing. It isn't something that will produce quick results. It will take a lot longer than the first phase of the war."

The United States has had mixed results with peacekeeping and nation-building efforts. The Marshall Plan, a massive rebuilding campaign after World War II, is still hailed as a landmark of U.S. foreign policy. A more recent mission to keep the peace Somalia proved dangerous to U.S. troops, and attempts to rebuild Haiti have been frustrating.

The cost of rebuilding Afghanistan could be cheaper than not rebuilding it, Nelson said Tuesday. He said failure to do so after the Soviet war in the '80s "came back to bite us" on Sept. 11.

The nine senators met with leaders in Turkey, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan. "We wanted to assure these leaders the United States is committed to help them fight terrorism," Nelson said. "We will not just walk away again."

William E. Gibson can be reached at wgibson@sun-sentinel.com or 202-824-8256 in Washington.